We’ve been talking for several years now about Detroit’s resurgence. We’ve contemplated, on this show and as a region, how the city can strike the right balance between investment in downtown and midtown and real change in the city’s neighborhoods.

How can the city attract new people and business while promoting a better quality of residential life for long time residents?

The Kresge Foundation has conducted a survey of confidence in Detroit’s resurgence over the past few years, and this year’s results are telling an interesting story.

At the very least it illustrates the complexity, nuance, and depth of thought that can and should be applied by new developers — to match the complexity, nuance, and depth of thought that’s experienced by most Detroiters when it comes to their changing cityscape.

“The survey was created to pressure-test the narrative surrounding Detroit’s recovery,” says Kresge CEO Rip Rapson. “We felt it was really important to try to get underneath the complexity of the entire city.”

“I think people feel strongly first that investing in the commercial corridors of this community is really important, that you can’t revitalize a city in one dimension. It’s got to be housing, and commercial revitalization, and safety and education.”

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Support for this project comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Renaissance Journalism’s Michigan Reporting Initiative and the Ford Foundation.

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